Strength
by DreamCrosser
Summary: Lin and Fira are the best of sisters and the best of friends, but with stronger than normal bending. Strong and steady Lin always looks out for the hyper and "energetic" Fira. The two all way's stick together. But what happens when the two become separated from each other when there night of fun is crashed by Equalists? Will Fira ever see Lin again? What will Lin do without Fira
1. Chapter 1: A much needed break

**Disclaimer:** _I (DreamCrosser) and sopranokittythegreat do not own the material from The Legend of Korra, just the characters we made up._

**Authors Note:** _This is a story that me and my friend sopranokittythegreat wrote together. It first started out as a role playing game, but then it got so good that we decided to write it all down and post it! Paragraphs alternate between authors. _*****_ means DreamCrosser is writing. ~ __means sopranokittythegreat is writing._

…

*****Lin clicked off the radio and sighed heavily. "Man, I thought the Fire Ferrets where doomed there for a moment," silence filled the room for a moment and then she jumped up "but at least they are one match away from winning the tournament! Whoohoo!" she yelled.

~Fira bounced up from the arm chair where she had been previously curled up. "I know, right? THEY ARE SOO AWESOME! I can't believe the _Avatar_ is on their team. Though, it'ssoo stupid that she's not allowed to bend anything besides water. I mean, SHE'S THE _AVATAR!_Sheesh, people can be such jerks." She looked down at the floor indignantly, her usually sparkling green eyes dark with anger, remembering how she had been rioted out of her job at the power plant for being able to power _all _of the machines at once. She exhaled though her nose, releasing small, blue flames, and reached up to touch her eye, which was black and painfully swollen where the fire bender she had a crush on had punched her during the riot- the incident that had made her lock herself in the bathroom for no less than two hours while she cried her eyes out in the _shower _for fear that her anger would cause her to burn down the apartment. Despite herself, she smirked at the thought that he was probably in the hospital at that moment suffering from third-degree burns from hers truly. Then she jumped, catching herself and brightening her attitude and looked up hopefully at Lin. "I know I had to quit my job, but can we please, please, _please_go to the next match? Pleeeeeeease? I-I _promise _I'll try _really _hard not to electrocute or set _anyone_ on fire for an ENTIRE week. PLEEEEEEEEASE?" By now, her puppy-dog face was more than perfected; she had even managed to hide that ever present, mischievous glint in her eyes, though her long black hair began to float from the static electricity produced from her excitement.

*****Lin giggled at her Fira's antics. How could she not say no to her friend? Her friend needed a distraction from what happened to her. It would be the break they deserved. Besides both she and Fira had worked hard enough. "You know what, we both need a holiday don't we? Why don't I call my boss and tell him I will take her offer on my break time and we will quickly pop by the arena to get our tickets for next Saturday?" Lin said as she stood up from her seat. "And don't worry about your eye, we will try to find a way to speed up your eye's healing before the game. If not, we will try to cover it up. What do you say?"

~"YES!" Fira cheered, jumping nearly four feet into the air and doing a fist pump, her apparent joy sent bright blue rivets of electricity over her and she was momentarily engulfed in a haze of scalding white flame. Realizing that she had _just_ promised not to set anyone on fire, she straightened up and tried to carry herself with a bit more control. "Uuhhm, I mean, yeah, that sounds awesome." She amended, still grinning.

Then a horrible thought hit her and her face fell. _What if I saw Ziron at the game? _It was bad enough her Equalist parents had _hated _her. Being _protested_ and _attacked_ by the boy she admired had nearly broken her. She didn't think she could bear to see him again, let alone _talk_ to him, since knowing him, he would probably confront her if he saw her. Especially after she burned him like that, he probably thought that she was some sort of monster, _like her parents did__._ Though, he had deserved it, after all, he punched her _in__ the f__ac__e__. _She decided that maybe it wasn't such a great idea to go, after all, she could still listen to the match on the radio like she usually did. Though, she still really wanted to see the Fire Ferrets in action, all this hearing about them and never _seeing_ them really was starting to get on her nerves, and then there was always the thing about getting to watch actual master fire benders. What if watching them helped her learn to control her own bending? But still, even this wasn't worth having to see _him_ again. She needed an excuse. "But, Lin, I still don't have a job, and you know, rent is really expensive." She looked down at her feet. "Don't we have a payment due soon?" She gained a little more courage and looked Lin in the eyes, "And what if some of the power plant workers are there? What if they recognize me? I mean, they're probably still going to be angry with me, after what I did to Ziron" As she spoke, her inner fears began to creep into her face and voice, and her eyes once again fell to the floor. She felt so incredibly miserable that for once, her long hair lay perfectly flat.

*****Lin's eye brows scrunched in concern as she put her hands on her friend's shoulders. "Don't worry Fira, nobody is going to hurt you. If they are there and a fight breaks out, then security will stop it as soon as possible. If not, I will be there to protect you. I am not going to let some idiot who broke my friend's heart and face hurt her further." Her serious face turned into a grin "Besides, the envelope for rent has more than enough yuans thanks to my raise at my job. And no matter what happens, we are going to march though this together. And I say we take a break and have a good time this Saturday!"

~Fira stared at Lin for a moment, felt her throat begin to tighten and her vision started to blur. _How did I ever find such a great friend? _A tear was threatening to fall down her cheek, and she quickly hugged Lin before, or at least she hoped before, she saw it.

"Thanks" she mumbled into her shoulder. She blew a puff of steam up her cheek and the tear evaporated, then she released Lin and flopped back onto the arm chair. While being absolutely terrified of the prospect that she might have to see Ziron again and slightly annoyed that her plan to evade said incident had failed, she was still really pumped that she would finally get to see a master in the ring, maybe even get to meet one, to even _learn_ from one- her dream come true. A few strands of her hair began to rise back into the air as she regained her usual quirky medium. She draped her legs over one of the arms of the chair and laid her head back on the other. Being a "special" fire bender did not help the efficiency of her metabolism, and quite frankly, took a lot out of her. "I'm _hungr__y_" she moaned dramatically, completely changing the subject.

*****Lin giggled at her friend's sudden change of mood. "Yeah it is past time for dinner isn't it? Why don't I make us some Hottmen Instant Noodles and we can talk about our plans for Saturday?" She said as she walked over to the kitchen area. She leaned down, opened a cupboard, and pulled out some packages. "I got your favorite flavor!"

~Fira, still flopped in the chair, with absolutely no intentions of moving, lazily fist pumped."Yay shrimp." She mumbled with exaggerated exhaustion and began planning how to trick Lin into letting her eat on their living room furniture and even getting her to carry her to her bed so that she wouldn't have to walk. "I wonder if we'll see any Equalists at the tournament?" she wondered, thinking about her parents. "Wait, I'm still allowed to zap Equalists, right? I mean, at _least_can I start Amon's pants on fire? It's not like I would ever do anything _permanent_ to anyone, unlike _those_ cabbage-heads. I burn people, but- but, that's not permanent, Republic City has like a gazillion healers, right?" She looked away, as the guilt from hurting Ziron began to sink in.

*****Lin began to boil the water on the gas stove. "Zap Equalists? Only if they are attacking. Amon? Go right ahead. He is a mad man and needs to go down."


	2. Chapter 2: heated argument

**_Authors note: Paragraphs alternate between authors. _***** **_means DreamCrosser is writing. ~ __means sopranokittythegreat is writing._

**_..._**

*****Saturday finally came for the two best friends. Unfortunately Lin was a bit uneasy. Last morning, the very man who called himself Amon hijacked the radio station broadcast and announced that the pro bending tournament should be closed. Thankfully, it was still going on due to the fact that the newspaper announced that metal bending police will be protecting the area. That gave her a positive boost, but she still felt that feeling in her stomach. She decided to brush that off so she would not freak out Fira.

The two friends stood in line to get their tickets.

"I can't wait to see the Fire Ferrets beat the Wolf Bats can you?" Lin asked her friend as she smiled the biggest grin in the world.

~"Nope!" Fira grinned back, practically vibrating, or rather, she _was_ vibrating. Her attempting to appear normal by _not_ sending off charges of electricity, like she normally would, was causing the excess energy to build up inside of her, which made her shake uncontrollably. She had her hair braided so that it wouldn't float in public, but a few strands stood up, just waving in the breeze, earning her a few weirded out looks from her fellow civilians.

Her smile became tainted with irritation. "Well, at least we'll get to see the Fire Ferrets beat them _physically_, they probably won't win the match because the Wolf Bats are a bunch of good-for-nothing, cheating pricks who bribe their way through life. I swear, if it wasn't for their sponsors, they wouldn't have the honest skills to work as street sweepers!" Chuckling, she looked around and nearly screamed, somehow limiting herself to a frightened squeak and a small burst of electricity.

Paralyzed with horror, she stared at the profile of Ziron, just ten people behind her in line. Taking a deep breath and releasing it slowly, she realized that he was talking with some of his friends from the power plant and that he had _not_ seen her. She was also relieved to see that the burn on his face was nearly gone. Letting out a sigh, she turned away from him before she would accidentally catch his eye or draw Lin's attention to him, as she was pretty sure that she would go after him. She didn't understand _why_, but she still kind of liked him, even after he had gone after her like that during the riot. She guessed it was sort of like how she still loved her parents, even though they had pretty much disowned her as soon as they had found out she was a firebender, which happened not long after she was born.

Shuddering, she edged closer to Lin.

*****"Ha, maybe. But who knows, maybe the Fire Ferrets will have luck on their side" Lin said as she took a step forward toward the ticket booth. "Two tickets please for the lower section" she asked the ticket booth guy and handed him five yuans.

The ticket guy gave her the tickets and smiled. "Enjoy the game."

"Will do" she said. She spun around on her foot to face Fira and handed her a ticket "Guess who got us near the front row?" she beamed "This is going to be so awesome. Just you, me, and some high paced action!"

~"Are you serious? This is SO AWESOME!" Fira squealed, bouncing up and down. In her glee, she momentarily lost control of her electric charge, and lightning bolts zipped through the air around her and her wide grin became internally lit as she tried to stop herself from breathing fire. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down, but began to feel uneasy. Her antics had caught the attention of a lot of people and she felt someone staring at her, _burning a hole into the back of her head_. Then she made perhaps the dumbest mistake of her day- _she turned around_. Gorgeous copper eyes locked fiercely with hers and a pathetic, high pitched whimper snuck past her lips.

*Ziron started walking towards to the two friends, steaming hands showing his anger rising.  
Lin's face turned into pure concentration as she stepped in front of her friend. "And what do you think you are going to do?"

"Give this witch a taste of what's good for her" he spat at her "the good for nothing job stealer."

"You can't just beat her down for who she is, so what if she is more powerful that you."

"No" he barked "SHE, is not normal. SHE is an alien. And SHE had no right to give me this!" he yelled as he poked a finger at his eye. His hands were engulfed in flame by now.

Lin feared for Fira's life. She took an earthbending stance. But then she noticed something. "Do you really want to do this with the metal bending police here?"

~Ziron smirked. "You really think _I'm _the one who'll end up in a cell? That _freak_ is a danger to society."

Fira's eyes widened, she knew Lin would go after him now, but this was her fight and she needed to end it once and for all before her friend got burned because of her. She pulled herself together and stepped between Lin and Ziron. White flames swirled around her making her look like some sort of avenging angel. She was pretty pissed off and when she spoke, light blue flames curled out from her lips. "Really, Ziron, I'm a job stealer." Cocking her head, she continued, "'Cuz, last I checked, I _lost_ mine after _your_ lovely riot. If I had actually "stolen" somebody's job, _I would still freaking have one!_" Her fire flared blindingly around her and she took a step closer to him, her voice took an uncharacteristically dangerous low tone. "And I don't see why you'd be trying for revenge, after all, you did strike first, and if I'm such a terribly dangerous freak, you should have known better than to attack me."  
Despite himself, Ziron gulped and took a step back- but Fira wasn't done yet.

"I _am_ very sorry about your eye, it seems to be healing up very well. Don't worry; I think it'll be fine in a couple of days. Though, it must have hurt a lot. _I_, on the other hand-" she examined one of her flaming hands, "-cannot quite remember what my eye felt like, because, _somehow,_ I managed to retain this horrible concussion." She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, looking him deep in his eyes with a mockingly puzzled look. "Though I still don't understand as to why you would punch a girl. Isn't that considered cowardly or something? And really? I was only messing around, I wasn't trying to take _anyone's_ place. After all, other people need jobs too!" She gave him a pointed look.

Ziron's face became very red as his anger built up in him again, causing him to resemble (at least in Fira's mind) a pimple on the verge of explosion. His fists clenched and dagger-like flames shot out of them.

*****Lin leaned over Fira's shoulders. "My friend, you need to settle down and get a move on. You see you are holding up the line and..."

Ziron lashed out at the two girls in a swirling fire punch type move. But as quick as lightning Lin retaliated by stomping the ground, making a slab of concert pop out of the ground and held it there as Ziron punched it.

Ziron yelped in surprise and pain as his fist collided with it. Lin smirked. "What? Never fought an earthbender before, bub?"

"Hey what's going on here?" shouted a metal bending cop.

"This doof is giving us problems" Lin responded, several other people agreed with complaints of their own.

~Fira began taking slow, deep breaths, desperately trying to cool down before the cops noticed those deadly and nearly invisible white flames still swirling around her, and shrunk back behind Lin. She was still internally seething from Ziron and was really wishing that she had been able to give his face a bit more symmetry.

"What about _her_?" Ziron yelled furiously, causing her to jump. He pointed accusingly at her. "She's out of control! Don't tell me you can't see that fire! She's going to seriously hurt someone! Look!-" he said pointing to his scar, "-She burned me last week! Had me in the hospital for three days! Doctor said they were third degree!"

A large police officer took a step towards Fira and narrowed his eyes. She looked fearfully up at him and shrank back trembling, wishing for the millionth time in her sixteen years that she could simply turn herself into a real flame and fade out of existence.

*** **"Officer, there is a perfect explanation for this" Lin quickly explained "My friend here has a rare natural mutation she had since she was born. It is very hard to control alone, that is why I live with her. This guy was a worker at the local power plant, the same one my friend Fira worked at. He attacked her and set her emotions off balance, earning him a burn to the face. He should have known about his fellow worker's problem, his boss would have told him. Now he just can't leave us in peace!"

"But she's crazy! Just look at her!" Ziron claimed.

Lin summed more concrete to wrap around her arms and chest for protection. "She's not crazy," she said hugging her friend, trying to calm Fira down "She just has issues like you and me."

~"Fine. Just make sure she gets that fire under control, I can feel it from over here." Growled the cop, "And you!" he barked, snapping his head around to face Ziron. "I better not see you causing any more trouble, or you're going to be spending your night in a cell!"

Ziron just stood there wide eyed, his mouth opened and closed like he was going to say something but thought better of it.

"Now get in line and get your ticket before I make you go home." The cop ordered.

"Y-yes sir" Ziron stuttered and quickly began doing just that, still looking rather dumbstruck.

Fira's flames dissipated. "Thank you, Lin." She whispered. Tears began running down her cheeks. Why her? Why did she have to be such a freak? As the police walked away, she could see several of the men sending her fearful glances over their shoulders. She looked away and buried her face in Lin's shoulder.

*Lin placed the concrete back into the ground and began to rub her friend's shoulder. "It's okay," she said as she guided Fira towards the doors leading toward the arena "Let's just forget about it and have ourselves a great time tonight. I will try my best to make this the best night that has ever happened to you."


	3. Chapter 3: not going as planed

**_Authors note: Paragraphs alternate between authors. _***** **_means DreamCrosser is writing. ~ __means sopranokittythegreat is writing._

~Fira let herself be led inside and gasped. The arena was spectacular with its high domed glass ceiling and raised ring completely surrounded by a deep pool of water. She couldn't believe how many people were there. Her skin tingled as her electric charge returned with her excitement. She stared around, wide eyed in amazement, and an enthusiastic smile slowly spread across her face. "I can't believe I'm actually here!" She whispered gleefully to Lin.

*****"Me neither!" Lin squeaked back. She grabbed Fira's hand and pulled her down to the lower part of the arena "Come on, let's get a closer look!" As they approached the edge where their seats were, the excitement on Lin's face kept growing and growing. "Here are our seats." She said entering the right row. As soon as she sat down, she leaned over a little to get a better view of the players loft at one side of the arena "Do you see them yet?" Lin asked "Do you see the Fire Ferrets?"

~"No- I don't know." Fira said, squinting at the loft. Then the Fire Ferrets walked on stage and she squealed, nearly becoming a living electric storm. "OH MY GOSH I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! IT'S ACTUALLY THEM! OH MY GOSH, OH MY GOSH, _OH MY GOSH!_" She covered her mouth with her hands and started giggling hysterically.

*****"Oh my gosh, they are so awesome!" Lin squeaked "She is obviously Korra" she said pointing at the girl with a pony tail. The tallest guy turned to his left, waved and blew a kiss to a girl in the private viewing booth. "And he must be Mako because I learned on the radio that he is dating Asami Sato, the daughter of Haroshi Sato." As their platform stopped at the ring, they stepped on. Suddenly a small little animal jumped off of the third person's shoulders and did a hand stand. "And that just leaves Bolin" Lin concluded. As if to confirm Lin's hypothesis the guy earth bent a disk into the air creating a ring that the Fire Ferret jumped through. "Awww, he is so cute!" she cooed.

~"That was sooo ADORABLE! Fira squealed, her eyes watering like they always did when she saw cute animals. Then, the pricks themselves entered wearing Wolf Bat costumes, which Fira found absolutely hideous and over the top. She stood up and booed as loudly as she could and thought she saw one of them glare at her. Sitting back down, she leaned towards Lin and snickered. "Don't they look ridiculous?"

*****Lin shuddered in disgust. "Eew. He looks like an actual werepyre." _(half werewolf half vampire)_

The players lined up and the bell rang. Almost instantly, Tanto, from the Wolf Bat side tried to water-box Korra in the face. But Korra dogged it with ease. Mako attacked the opposing team's earth bender, who dodged his attack and sent earth disks straight back at him with flying kicks. His attacks knocked Mako to the second zone. Korra was knocked into the second zone soon afterwards. The fire bender on the Wolf Bat team did a fancy flip to doge Bolin's attack. But Bolin ricocheted the disk off the side and hit him as he landed.

"Oh yeah!" cheered Lin "Earth benders represent!" Lin sat down and leaned toward Fira "This guy is awesome!"

~"Yeah." Fira murmured, not really listening. Her eyes were locked on the fire benders. She couldn't believe the control they had over their fire; it was so beautiful to her, almost like they were dancing. Each move was so _precise_, perfectly directed to knock over the opponent rather than to maim him.

*****Suddenly, the Wolf Bat's water bender hosed Bolin, knocking him way back into the last zone. The Wolf Bats advanced into Fire Ferret territory.

"What the heck! That was a hosing foul! Are the refs blind!" Lin shouted in anger.

Everyone in the arena booed in disapproval, even the fire bending Fire Ferret yelled at the ref.

~Fira sat in her seat seething in rage from the injustice of the call and glared at the ref. She wanted to "boo" too, but wispy flames where appearing around her and she knew that if she opened her mouth, she would breath fire, so she clamped her jaws shut and just growled.

*****The match continued with all sides attacking at once. But as soon as it started up again, the earth bending Wolf Bat tripped Mako with a disk from Fire Ferret territory. The shenanigans did not stop there. The water bender from the same team iced the ring, causing Bolin to fall off the side of the ring and slam painfully into the water below.

"What's going on?" Lin shouted "Those moves were illegal!"

~Fira opened her mouth to scream something incredibly rude and distasteful at the ref, but as she opened her mouth, a holocaust of white flames shot out. So she slapped her hands over her mouth and just sat there growling and trembling in rage.

*****Lin felt the extremely hot flames next to her. Feeling concerned for her friend she called to a guy selling drinks. "Two bubbly leachi juices please." she ordered. She handed him the money and he handed her the drinks. "Here," she handed the drink to her friend "Hope this calms you down."

~Fira blushed. "Thanks." The drink in her hand was starting to boil, so she quickly raised to her lips to drink it before it splattered all over Lin, but just as her lips were about to touch the liquid, she accidentally exhaled into the cup, causing a puff of steam to shoot up into her face. Blinking and red with embarrassment, she drank what was left of the once cool beverage as fast as she could and chucked the empty cup into one of the trash cans in the aisle. She buried her face in her hands and groaned.

*****Lin sighed and patted Fira's back. "Sorry this is not going as planned." Lin apologized.

Just then, the bell rang three times.

"What? A knock out?" Lin said in disbelief.

~Fira gaped at the ring in horror, seeing three Wolf Bats gloating over a victory. "No!" she yelled in anger, and then stiffened up. "You know what? That doesn't matter, no matter what the ref says, the Fire Ferrets still win. Whatever the Wolf Bats did to get them off the ring most certainly wasn't legal." Then she spotted someone's hand clinging to the edge of the ring. "OH MY GOSH!" She screamed jumping out of her seat.

*****"Korra and Mako are hanging off the edge! There is still a chance they can win this!" Lin cheered. Korra was grasping the edge of the ring with one hand and was grabbing Mako with the other. Using all of the strength she could muster, she swung Mako to the top and fell into the water below. Mako landed safely in the ring and kicked a fire ball straight into one of the Wolf Bats' behinds, sending him back a space. His team mates looked back in disbelief. The bell rang, signaling the end of round one.

"Looks like they might win this one after all" Lin said leaning back as both teams take a time out and huddle together. "Hey, do you think that we will be able to meet the Fire Ferrets to get their autographs? I want to see if I can get Bolin's."

~"OK!" Fira grinned, "But can you get Mako's and Korra's for me? I'm worried I'll get too excited and burn the paper."

*****"Sure thing!" Lin grinned.

Round two contained with more cheating from the Wolf Bat side, which included more ice, and illegal fire bending head shots.

"Round two will be decided with a tie breaker!" The announcer announced. The ref flipped a coin and the Fire Ferrets won. They chose the element water.

"Oh yeah, Korra is gonna win this one I can just feel it!" Lin stated.

The two water benders stepped into the middle ring and were raised up as they took there fighting stances. Silence filled the arena as the two players focused on each other for a long time. Then, as quick as a flash, Korra took the first two shots. The first one missed, but the second one was an upper water cut, knocking the Wolf Bat- and his helmet out of the middle ring. Lin watched dumbfounded as the helmet flew out of the ring and into the audience and fell into a little girl's hands.

"Round two goes to the fire ferrets!" the announcer announced as the whole crowd went wild.

Lin turned to Fira, "Oh yeah! Who called it?" she boasted, giving her a high five.

~Fira laughed with a playfully indignant expression, "Yeah, well I thought it first."

*****Round 3 started with an explosion of motivation as both teams gave it their all with advanced bending moves. Each team was working together, each defending and attacking each other like one well-made machine. The two teams where evenly matched because neither team seemed to be able to knock at least one player off. The Wolf Bats soon bumped the Fire Ferrets back near the edge of the ring, but the Ferrets continued to hold their ground. That was, until the Wolf Bat water bender snuck behind his earth bending team mate as he whipped an earth disk behind his back.

"Wait a minute what is he-" Lin stated as she noticed this. The water bender then lashed out in three smooth moves as he knocks out all three Fire Ferrets in the head and off the back of the ring.

"Knock out!" The ref announced

"Are you kidding me?" Lin shouted in denial "that water had rocks in it! It's illegal!" She stomped at the word illegal out of frustration, causing the bleachers in front of them to tilt to the side and the spectators in the to turn around and give her strong stares. Lin blushed and smiled in a silent apology.

Siting back down, she turned her head to her right to find Fira staring at her. Lin sighed, "I guess I don't have control of my bending the entire time do I?" she asked.

Before Fira could answer, a blast of electrical energy went off behind them. The two spun around to see a metal bending cop fall to his knees and a man with his face covered standing above him.


	4. Chapter 4: Panic and kidnapping

******_Authors note: Paragraphs alternate between authors. _***** **_means DreamCrosser is writing. ~ __means sopranokittythegreat is writing._

**...**

*****Electricity cracked around the audience stands as masked people caused the metal bending police to drop like bumble-flies. Lin's head shot around to see two men in masks hold glowing glove devices at both of the girls.

"Fira, stay down and stay calm" Lin demanded. Fira nodded and sat down with fear in her eyes. Both girls looked to the ring where the center ring was raising six people and the infamous Amon. As Amon walked forward, the Wolf Bats attacked. Amon and his men and women were too fast for them and they were captured. They watched as Amon touched all of their foreheads.

~He turned to the audience and began a long speech, talking about how the benders were using their powers to oppress non-benders and how that was expressed when they had let bullies like the Wolf Bats win the tournament. They had been an example, and anyone who got in the Equalists' way would suffer the same fate and lose their bending forever. Holding up one of the electric gloves he spoke again with pride evident in his voice.

"Now anyone can hold the power of a bender in their hand!"

As this was happening, Fira's fear was quickly becoming replaced with a fierce, growing anger. What she was being forced to watch were the ideals and man that had destroyed her childhood. It was the Equalists' fault that her parents _hated_ her, _forced_ her out onto the street when she was thirteen. She wanted them to pay for what they had done to her, someone was about to get seriously burned. Then, they would realize just how important bending was- _when they were seeing the healers for their third degree burns_. Swirling flames were beginning to appear around her. She didn't want to scorch Lin, so she decreased their temperature, turning the nearly invisible white flames to eye-catching bright blue flames. This quickly caught the attention of one of the Equalists behind her.

"Hey! No bending allowed, freak!" He barked, zapping her with a glove.

That did it, snapping around she lunged at him with her own electricity crackling around her and white flames shooting out of her hands. Both the offending Equalist and his partner reacted much faster than she expected. Their gloved hands shot out and grabbed her, holding her while they pumped her full of electricity, for a few moments, her face twisted in a silent agonized scream, then her eyes rolled back and she slumped to the floor unconscious.

*****Lin sat there in horror, too paralyzed with fear to do anything. An explosion ripped a hole into the middle of the arena, causing pure adrenalin to shoot through her body. People screamed in terror as they ran for the exits, their Equalist captors letting them go and disappearing from the scene- but the same did not happen to Fira.

"Take the crazy girl! She needs to be taken care of!" One of the masked men yelled over the noise. His partner grabbed Fira, lugged her limp body over his shoulder and darted towards the exit.

"No!" Lin screamed, running after them up the stairs. She stopped, took a strong earthbending stance, and manage to trip one of the men by making the concrete stairs crumble underneath his feet. His friend, carrying Fira, made an escape. The man who was tripped got up and turned to face Lin.

"You have made a grave mistake." As quick as a flash, he bolted after her and shocked her in the shoulder, making her crumple to her knees. "Say goodbye, bender." He spat, lifting her by her shirt and leveling his glove device at Lin's face. She screwed her eyes shut, expecting the worst, but it did not come. Instead she heard hard concrete crash. She opened her eyes to see herself fall to the ground, the man being pelted by some concrete. Lin looked behind herself to see a guy in a red uniform earth bending concrete at her attacker.

"Not on my watch, pal!" The guy stated. The man then quickly grabbed Lin and launched her at his attacker with great force and made his getaway. Lin screamed and crashed into the guy, causing both of them to tumble to the ground. Moaning in pain she rubbed her head and looked up to see the face of her rescuer.

It was Bolin, of the Fire Ferrets.

Lin felt her stomach flutter a bit; _well this is awkward _she thought.


	5. Chapter 5: to headquarters

Seance Lin and Fira are seperate, sopranokittythegreat and I needed to wright seperat chapters.

*signifies me (DreamCrosser) or Lins part  
~signifies sopranokittythegreat or Fira's

...

~Meanwhile, Fira's captor had exited the arena into the freezing sea air. Seeing no one in pursuit of him, he adjusted his prisoner in his arms, cradling her, because his shoulder had started to hurt from her body weight. He felt her shivering weakly from the cold and twitching occasionally- an effect of being so severely electrocuted. Looking down at her, he realized that she wasn't much younger than him. She looked almost innocent, not like some psychopathic firebender. Though, he knew better. Her fire _had_ terrified him. He knew from his history classes about another powerful firebender, _Princess Azula_, her fire had only been blue, but it had been a product of her extreme insanity and anger. _This _girl had _white_ fire as well as blue. He didn't even want to know what extent _her_ insanity went to. He stared at her a while longer, amazed at how peaceful she looked in contrast to what she was. Then, an especially cold gust of air blew over them, bringing him back to the present.

Little did the young Equalist know, this horrible coldness was causing Fira to come to. She was so sensitive to freezing temperatures that they literally burned her skin, and that was what was happening right then. Her eyelashes fluttered, and she tried to huddle closer to the warm body holding her. All of the muscles in her body ached terribly from having so much electricity tear through them and she moaned softly. The boy jumped in horror and quickly pressed his glove to her, pumping even more electricity into her. Momentarily, she was fully brought back to consciousness. Her face was a mixture of surprise and raw agony as her wide stretched green eyes met the brown of the Equalist. Then they rolled back for the second time that day and her body went limp. The only sign of life was the faint rise and fall of her chest. The young Equalist, feeling rather unnerved, tightened his grip on her and quickened his pace. Finally, he came to the Equalist van, hidden in an alleyway near the bridge to the arena, and tossed her in the trunk. One of his comrades got into the driver's seat and he hopped into the front passenger, and they made their way to headquarters.


	6. Chapter 6: comfort in the unthinkable

*signifies me (DreamCrosser) or Lins part  
~signifies sopranokittythegreat or Fira's

...

*Bolin coughed, trying to get the air back into his lungs. "Are," he coughed in between "you okay?"

Lin got up off of him and quickly and sat on the stairs. Looking down at her knees she rubbed the back of her neck and blushed."Yeah I am, fiii!" she yelped as one of her hands flew towards the pain in her shoulder.

"You don't look fine" he said as he sat up. Scooting up next to her he put a hand on her shoulder.

"Ow!" she yelped

"Sorry! Sorry!" his apologized as he took his hand off. "You don't mind if I look right?"

Lin hesitated but agreed "No, go right ahead." she said as she pulled up her sleeve half way.

Bolin gently pulled it up further and examined her shoulder "Ouch! Yeah, you are definitely got burned there." He looked around the arena "Looks like we are going to have to wait for a while. My friend can probably heal you, but she is busy at the moment."

Lin looked up at the glass dome. Up above, Avatar Korra was battling Equalists left and right along with one of the metal bending cops. The rest of the arena looked a mess too. The whole place was empty except for trash that was thrown to the ground buy spectators. The pro-bending ring had a big gaping hole ripped through it. A black pillar of smoke billowed out of it, covering the center light fixture and making the room a bit darker. Her thoughts went back to Fira.

"Name's Bolin by the way" Bolin said smiling a bit to be friendly. Lin nodded as tears began to run down her face, trying to hold them back to try and stay strong. Bolin's smile turned into concern, "are you going to be allright?"

Lin wiped her stray tears, not even bothering to look at the pro bender. "I'm going to be fine. Its just. They took her, they took my sister and one of my best friend in the world" she said choking on her words a little bit. "They took her because she can't control her firebending all the time and now who knows what they have done to her. They probably already took her bending away already, or worse. I don't even want to think what happened to her..." her tears began to fall more freely.

"You don't look like you're fine " Bolin said gently.

Lin could not bear it any more, she broke out sobbing right in front of him. "I should've done something! At least something to calm her down! I was responsible for her and I let her down! Now I am just sitting here, not even chasing after her kidnappers, being a pathetic weakling!"

Lin continued to sob. Bolin sat there, feeling a bit awkward by the situation, but compassion got the better of him. He embraced her in a just as awkward hug and she cried into his shoulder.

"You're not pathetic," he said, trying to comfort her. "I saw you do your best to try and rescue her. I am sure you did everything you could to help her." He rubbed her back a little bit "I know what it is like to lose a family member. My parents were killed when I was just a little kid."  
Lin's crying died down a bit, "I am sorry that happened to you, it must of been really hard."

Bolin looked down at her,"Ah, I'm fine now" he said "my life may be different but at least I am surviving."

They both sat in a somewhat silence as Lin cried herself out. After what happened, she was at least happy that somebody was there to comfort her. She did not have anyone else to go to when she was hurt. Sure she had her family, but her mom and dad were on the other side of Republic city and most of the time they were busy with work. She did not want to go to Fira either, mainly because she had problems of her own. She had to be the strong one of the sisters, the one who always had a level head when problems occur, even when she wasn't having a good day herself. She had to be strong. But here he was, the guy she only heard about on the radio, holding her and comforting her. A complete stranger chose to be by her side through this ordeal.

Glass shattering broke the silence and drove the two into alertness. Up above two human shapes could be seen swinging from above. The two swung down and landed near some bleachers nearby.

"Korra's all right!" Bolin said with relief. He got up from his spot and ran over joining his brother. The two hugged the Avatar with smiles on their faces, happy to see her safe. Lin smiled as she watched the reuniting friends. She just hoped that her friend was safe.

Lin got up from her seat on the stairs, still clutching her shoulder, and began to walk towards the exit. She was not needed here, she needed to go home and think things through.

"Hey! Where are you going?"

Or so she thought.

Lin looked around to see Bolin running after her with his friends, a policewoman, and what looked like one of the city's counsel men, not far behind. "Where are you going?" he asked again "You still need your shoulder taken care of and the police are not busy and can help you."

Lin blushed in embarrassment and looked at her toes for a second "Sorry, It has been a long night and I guess I was not thinking straight."

"It's okay, just sit down here and let Korra take care of you" The metal bending police woman assured.

Korra guided Lin to a blecher and bended some ice water from a bucket Mako brought from the players loft. She put it on Lins burned shoulder and started to heal her "Don't worry, we are going to help you any way we can" Korra said.

"Now can you tell us what happened to you?" asked the woman.

Lin looked off at the still smoking arena and began to tell her story.


	7. Chapter 7: a talent hidden in the dark

"Well, what are we supposed to do with her then!" A large man with a gruff, exasperated voice exclaimed. "According to Lee, we can't put her in a cage because she'll melt the bars and Amon won't see anyone, so we can't prevent her from bending!"

"That's why I say we should put her in the cooler!" Lee, the young Equalist, snapped, his brown eyes lit with irritation. "It was designed specifically for holding freaks like her!"

A third Equalist, around his age, muscular with bronze skin and wavy dark chestnut hair started towards him and tried in vain to snatch the unconscious girl from him for the second time that night.

"I've already told you! If you put her in there, she'll die! She's already on the brink!" He growled, for the second time that night. "She needs medical attention _now_!" He added with a hint of desperation in his voice.

As if in response, she began to squirm weakly in Lee's arms and her eyes flickered open and closed repeatedly as if she wanted to wake up, but couldn't quite find the strength to. Her eyes were visibly rolling around beneath their lids and she began to cry and moan softly in her sub consciousness. Lee looked down at her in disgust and then smirked at the other boy.

"See? She's fine. She just needs to cool down, that's all!"

"But you don't understand, she's—"

He was interrupted as another Equalist entered the room, took one look at the girl, and gasped loudly. All three of the other Equalists spun around to stare at him.

"Is that- is that— "He stuttered in apparent shock, but Lee cut him off.

"Is that _what_?" He snapped.

"Sh-Shira's d-daughter." He finally choked out, stumbling over the words.

Suddenly everyone in the room except the young bronze Equalist and the semi-conscious girl, who was still moaning, shared his expression of shock, except with a bit more horror. Lee was frozen to the spot, as if the suggestion that _he_ was holding_ Shira's daughter_ thoroughly terrified him. The large man just stood there and gaped for a moment, and then began fumbling with his key ring. The bronze Equalist just looked confused. "Wait, what? Who's—" He started, but they ignored him.

The man found the key he wanted and hastily began to unlock a heavily bolted think metal door with a narrow metal slide-open window. He yanked open the door and a shocking blast of freezing air slammed into them. The girl began to wail. He forcibly grabbed her from Lee and threw her headfirst into the cooler. The freezing air made quick work of shocking her to consciousness and she screamed in pure agony, still in the air. Then she slammed into the back metal wall, crumpled on the hard metal floor and lay very still. Her long black hair covered her face, but blood visibly oozed from a sizable gash in her head and began to pool onto the floor. Her limbs were sprawled out and contorted in painful positions. The man slammed the door shut and rapidly began locking it again. The boy just stared at him for a second, in complete shock.

"NOOO! Why would you do that?" He screamed, visibly shaking with rage, looking like he was either going to be sick or kill somebody. He began to hyperventilate.

"Because." The man began. "This girl has a reputation. She is _uncontrollable_. Probably the most dangerous person we have ever encountered, or ever will encounter, for that matter."

"I DON'T CARE!" The boy screamed frantically. "SHE'S GOING TO DIE!"

"Why does it even matter?" Lee asked snidely, regaining his normal cocky attitude.

"HOW CAN YOU EVEN ASK A QUESTION LIKE THAT? SHE'S HUMAN TOO!" He roared, lunging at Lee. The man intercepted him and sent him into the wall.

"PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER, BOY!" he yelled into his face. Then his voice softened, "Here, if it makes you feel any better, you can stand watch over her." He turned to the two other Equalists. "Come on! We have other business to attend to." And he started down the hallway with the others in tow.

"WAIT!" The boy shouted after him. "What about the keys?"

The man paused, shaking his head, and continued walking down the hall, with no intentions giving them to him. Lee whistled softly and began to chuckle.

The boy turned back to the cooler and slid open the window. He pressed a hand over his mouth as a tear rolled down his cheek. His slanted turquoise eyes filled with horror. He could _feel_ the girl inside dying, her internal organs were shutting down, and he knew that her heart wasn't going to beat on its own for much longer- It was so slow and weak, so _faint_. He also knew what he had to do, he just didn't know if he could bear to do it. Taking slow deep breaths and focusing, he did something that should have been impossible for him to do. _He blood bended through the metal door and forced her heart to keep beating and her lungs to keep breathing._


	8. Chapter 8: to safety

~The boy peered into the cooler's window. He had been acting as her life support for nearly three hours. His head was pounding horribly from focusing so hard for so long, but he couldn't stop. The girl's body had stopped functioning on its own a long time ago and if he left her, she'd be gone. He couldn't believe himself, if only he had taken control of Kon when he had the chance. It would have been simple, knocking out Lee and the other guy, and then forcing Kon to unlock the cooler. Then the girl could have been safe, _still independently alive_. At this point he wasn't even sure if he could bring her back, even if he did get his hands on her. Then, he still had his mission. Maybe it had a blessing in disguise that he hadn't blown his cover, doing so could have cost the lives of the people he was going to save, cost the benders the war. He shook that thought off. Despite how the Equalists had reacted to her, this girl did not deserve to die. He had felt the general layout of her mind through her emotions during the short time when she was conscious, she was not evil. He knew what evil minds felt like, most of his family was evil, and he had spent most of his life surrounded by them.

Suddenly he heard someone approaching and felt the signature bodily rhythms of Kon as he came into view. He barely suppressed a sigh of relief. Kon gave him a concerned look.

"You're still standing here?"

"Yes." He replied quietly.

The man slowly ran his hand down his face. "Son, it's late. I know you're worried about her, but you really need to go home now."

"No."

"Excuse me?" He gave him a sharp look.

The boy slowly exhaled and closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, he looked up at Kon with an almost apologetic expression.

"I have to save her." He murmured almost inaudibly.

The man looked genuinely surprised. "Wha—

He never got the chance to finish. The boy took control over him and he expressionlessly reached into his pocket, took out the key ring and began unlocking the cooler as fast as the boy could get him to. Despite his serine appearance, the boy could feel his fear and anger. As he was about to make him open the door he looked into the man's eyes.

"I'm sorry." He whispered.

The cooler's door swung open and the boy gasped as the freezing air hit him, causing him to momentarily release Kon from his control. The terrified man tried to scream, but he was quickly silenced as the boy made him pass out. He quickly rushed to the girl, scooping her up and brushing the hair off her face. What he saw caused his heart to jump into his throat. There was blood all over and dark purple bruises covered much of her face, the skin that wasn't bruised or covered in frozen blood was paper white with a terrible bluish tint. Her body had nearly reached freezing temperatures and he could feel that many of her bones were broken from being thrown into the hard metal cooler. He stood up abruptly, clutching her limp body tightly, and sprinted out of the cooler and down the hallway. While still trying to manually keep the girl alive, he knocked out everyone within his mind's reach. No one escaped his bending and his flight was rather uneventful, the only disturbances the occasional thumps of guards as their limp bodies became acquainted with the floor.  
Despite the lack of pursuit, he ran as fast as he could through the long labyrinth of hallways and finally reached the exit. Shifting the girl over one of his shoulders, he threw open the door and dashed out into the chilly winter air and hastily made his way through the countless alleyways to his apartment complex. He slipped through the main door and ran up the metal stairs to the fifth floor, found his door, and unlocked it.

Flipping on the light, he placed the girl onto his ratty old cot. While still trying to catch his breath, he turned on the sink, water bending out two or three gallons of water and causing it to heat up. Moving back to the girl, he bent the warm water around her, even making her swallow some- he needed to get her body temperature back up before he tried to heal her.

After nearly two unfruitful hours of this, something amazing happened- she began to shiver. The boy, nearly weeping with relief, went to work healing her internal wounds.

Maybe he could still bring her back after all.


	9. Chapter 9: meeting Bolin again

*Lin pushed the heavy door open as she walked out onto the street out of the police station. The traffic was just as busy as her thoughts about last night. She could not stop thinking about Fira. All of the constant worrying made her lose sleep that night. The police said that they posted a notice about her kidnaping in the newspaper and are doing their best to find her, but that did not make her feel better.

Lin sighed as she approached the trolley stop. "_They probably took her bending away by now."_ she thought to herself. "_Maybe it is a good thing that she had her bending taken away from her. She wouldn't have to worry about accidentally burning someone, or worry about being called a freak." _Her eyes widened in realization and she stomped the ground in anger, _What in the world am I talking about! Fira's powers make her unique! Even though she has problems with them they make her who she is and they should never be taken away!_

She plopped down on the bench, letting her head fall back and sighed. Lifting her head back up to look around a moment she found that she was the only one there "_I need to settle down, I have been so balled up lately it is not even funny."_

Sceeeeeeeeeech!

Lin jumped from her seat to see what all the commotion was about. Across the street, a girl driving a fancy satomobile screech to a halt on the other side of the road. One of the two guys in it jumped out and ran across the street towards her. "Hey! Remeb- sorry, sorry!" he called out as satomobile almost hit him. Lin recognized his face from yesterday.

"Hey, remember me!" Bolin greeted as he ran up to her with a big smile on his face.

Lin giggled, "How can I not? Thanks for helping me out yesterday.

"Ah, it was nothing." he said. "You never got the chance to tell me your name."

"Lin, my name is Lin" she said.

"Lin," Bolin repeated "I like that name a lot"

"Is it because it is in your name?" Lin teased.

"Maybe" he answered "It's amazing that I caught you here. My brother's girlfriend was just driving my brother and I to her mansion so we can move in. The Pro Bending arena closed down so we needed a new place to stay, so she invited us to come live with her. Isn't that great?!"

"Oh wow! That's amazing!" Lin said "Your life is really changing for you isn't it?"

"Ab-so-lutely" Bolin beamed. His face then turned concerned, "Hey, did you find your sister yet?"

Lin looked at the ground as a frown appeared on her face, "No, so far the police haven't found her yet."

"Oh, I am sorry to hear that" he said. A pause came from both of them, then Bolin looked her straight into her eyes. "You know what it's not fair that my life has gotten better and yours has not." he said. "Why don't I try to change that around? How would you like to go out on a night on the town with me tomorrow? I could bring you to one of my favorite places to eat and later we can walk about town."

Lin hesitated a bit "Oh, um, I don't know."

"Please!" Bolin pleaded. "I will take care of dinner. It will just be two friends having a great time together."

Lin giggled "Ok, I will go with you!"

"Yes!" Bolin cheered, "Can you meet me at the statue of Fire Lord Zuko at six?"

"Can do!" Lin confirmed.

"Good! See you around then" Bolin said as he turned around and waved behind him.

"See ya!" She said waving.

Bolin ran back across the street too his friends who were patiently waiting in the automobile. Lin watched as they drove off down the street, with Bolin waving from the backseat. Lin waved and sat back down at the trolley stop, her spirits lifted a bit, and waited for her trolley.

_"Who would've thought that I would ever meet that guy?" _Lin thought to herself. "_Wait a minute. Did he just ask me on a date?" _


End file.
